Meet the Historian

Dr. Josh Parshall: Director, Department of History

Dr. Josh Parshall has served as the Director of the ISJL History Department since July 2017. This is his second stint at the ISJL, having previously worked as oral historian from 2009 to 2013. His academic interests include American Jewish culture and politics, Yiddish language and culture, and southern studies. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his dissertation research focused on southern branches of the Arbeter Ring (Workmen's Circle).

Josh is available for speaking engagements through our Southern States Programming Series. Possible topics include southern Jewish history, southern Jews and the Civil Rights Movement, and Yiddish culture in the South.

Josh is married to former ISJL education fellow Allison Goldman Parshall, with whom he has one child, Noah. His non-Jewish interests include bicycles, comic books, and disc sports.